Casting and creative team has been announced for the upcoming UK tour of Frantic Assembly’s production of Othello which will open at the Curve Theatre on the 19th September and touring into 2023.
Michael Akinsulire (Trigger Point, Stephen, both ITV) will play Othello, Joe Layton (The Unreturning, Frantic Assembly; Young Wallander, Netflix) will play Iago, Chanel Waddock (Rock, Paper, Scissors, Sheffield Crucible; Hamlet, National Theatre) will play Desdemona, Oliver Baines (I Like The Way You Move , Frantic Ignition 2019, Theatre Peckham) will play Montano, Tom Gill (Vigil, BBC; Britannia, Sky) will play Cassio, Felipe Pacheco (Brassic, Sky; The Responder, BBC) will play Roderigo, Hannah Sinclair Robinson (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, UK and Ireland Tour; Rockets, Blue Lights, both National Theatre) will play Bianca, Kirsty Stuart (I Think We Are Alone, Frantic Assembly; Call the Midwife, BBC) will play Emilia, and Matthew Trevannion (War Horse, National Theatre; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, West End) will play Brabantio.
Frantic Assembly takes Shakespeare’s muscular and beautiful text, combines its own bruising physicality, and presents an Othello firmly rooted in a volatile 21st century. This is a world of broken glass and broken promises, of poisonous manipulation and explosive violence.
Originally presented to great acclaim in 2008 and 2014, this updated version in co- production with Curve Theatre Leicester, will tour to Curve Leicester, LiverpoolPlayhouse, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Theatre Royal York, Yvonne Arnaud Guildford, Oxford Playhouse, The Lowry Salford Quays, MAST Mayflower Studios Southampton, Connaught Theatre, Worthing and the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre London.
The production’s creative team includes: director Scott Graham, designer Laura Hopkins, lighting designer Natasha Chivers, sound design by Gareth Fry, music by Hybrid, casting director Will Burton CDG, associate director David Gilbert and co-choreographer Perry Johnson.
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Louis C.K. has announced that he is releasing a new movie next month.
In a nutshell
Louis C.K. told fans on his mailing list that independent film Fourth of July will open in select theatres around the world on July 1.
C.K. co-wrote the film with fellow stand-up comedian Joe List, who stars as Jeff, a sober New York jazz musician struggling to deal with his anxiety.
Jeff travels to Maine for Fourth of July weekend to confront his family, which is where his anxiety stemmed from.
C.K. directed, produced and edited the movie, and he also plays Jeff’s therapist.
The cast of Fourth of July is predominantly made up of stand-up comedians such as Lynne Koplitz, Nick Di Paolo, Robert Kelly and Tony V.
List stars, while his real-life wife and fellow comic Sarah Tollemache plays his wife in the movie.
Also on the cast list are Paula Plum, Robert Walsh, Tara Pacheco, Dorothy Dwyer and Chris Walsh.
What’s been said?
“For me, it was fun as all fuck to direct and make a film again,” C.K. wrote in an email to his fans. “Outside of my two scenes as Jeff’s therapist, which we shot first and got out of the way, for me, it was a real pleasure to direct without acting for the first time in many years.
“I felt able to look after the cast and focus on the look of the movie. Whether or not I did any of that properly, is up to pretty much everyone but me. I am very pleased with the results and hope that folks enjoy Fourth of July.”
Fourth of July represents C.K.’s first film since the comedian became embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal five years ago.
The accusations, which C.K. admitted to, resulted in several media companies severing ties with C.K. and his 2017 film I Love You, Daddy was pulled from distribution shortly before its scheduled release.
In recent years, C.K. returned to stand-up comedy and released two specials during the Covid-19 pandemic. Both were well-received and the first, Sincerely Louis C.K., earned him a third Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
On May 30 to June 01, the Speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, Valentina Matviyenko, headed a group of powerful and well-experienced Russian senators on a reciprocal visit to Maputo, Mozambique. The group had discussions with the Legislative Assembly, the Russia-Mozambique Parliamentary Friendship League, and finally with the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi. The discussions were focused on Russia-Ukraine and highly significant aspects of Russia-Mozambique bilateral relations.
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
In this context of bilateral economic cooperation, the Mozambican Head of State expressed satisfaction with the openness that Russia is showing high interest to expand bilateral cooperation with Mozambique, especially in the economic and social sectors. Reports monitored from local Mozambican media as well from both Russian and Mozambican Government websites indicated that Russia has still been looking for feasible and viable economic sectors to strengthen and broaden cooperation with Mozambique.
Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, during discussions with the Mozambican leader Filipe Nyusi, referred to the need to increase trade between Russia and Mozambique, which in the past year amounted to approximately US$109 million, and described trade figure as well below its potential. Matvienko then invited the Mozambican Government to identify priority areas in which cooperation could be expanded, so that these priorities could be discussed at next bilateral summit scheduled for July in Moscow, if Mozambique so agrees on this significant assignment or policy task.
After the Soviet collapse and throughout these three decades (30 years) of Russia-Mozambique relations, Russia and Mozambique have been appropriately described as “reliable and time-tested” partners in Africa. Reviewing the evolutionary processes of bilateral relations, it is about time to highlight development projects undertaken, achievements or are currently in progress. But for the Highly Respected Speaker Valentina Matviyenko requesting the Mozambican Government to identify priority areas for expansion of cooperation, especially at this time in their bilateral history, seems completely out of place. Completely out, especially during the meeting with President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi.
Here are a few of the underlined facts and some of the main reasons why inappropriate re-tasking the Government of Mozambique:
In August 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks at the Kremlin with President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi, who went there on an official visit, and later also addressed the Russian-Mozambique Business Forum at the World Trade Center as part of the working visit to Moscow. That Kremlin and World Trade Center meetings were devoted to various issues related to the further development of Russia-Mozambican cooperation in various areas in Mozambique. It offers an impetus to the long-standing relations and serves as an exclusive opportunity for discussing and identifying strategic ways of broadening economic cooperation.
The two presidents reviewed prospects for the expansion of Russia-Mozambique relations, and further exchanged views on concerning international and regional affairs. At the end of this high-level talks, Vladimir Putin and Filipe Nyusi witnessed the exchange of documents signed during the official visit of the President of Mozambique to Russia.
The list of signed documents included an intergovernmental agreement on mutual protection of classified information and an agreement on cooperation between the interior ministries of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Mozambique; as well as documents related to technical cooperation in geology and minerals’ extraction, as well as cooperation between Rosneft, the Mozambican National Institute of Oil and the Mozambican National Hydrocarbons Company, including on the development of natural gas deposits on the shelf of Mozambique. Inter RAO-Export and EdM (Mozambique) also signed a memorandum of understanding in power generation.
On March 5-9, 2018, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited African countries, including Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. In Maputo, for instance, Lavrov held several discussions, including with the President Filipe Nyusi and with the Mozambican Foreign Minister. These meetings were described as the driving force for diverse Russia-Mozambique cooperation. In this case, it is necessary to bring back into memory the diplomatic talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique Jose Pacheco. Later, Pacheco and his delegation also participated in the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June 2018 while in the Russian Federation.
They paid special attention to improving mutually beneficial partnership in various areas with an emphasis on making use of the potential of the Russia-Mozambique Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, whose first meeting was held on April 24-25 in Maputo. Since then, the Russia-Mozambique Intergovernmental Commission has had several meetings, as always, looking at bolstering economic cooperation. The Russia-Mozambique Intergovernmental Commission has always indicated that there is an increasing interest of the Russian business community in building a partnership with Mozambique, which matches Maputo’s intention to attract Russian investment and economic cooperation.
There are also official reports that business contacts in energy, transport and telecommunications have been established. For example, experts from the International Organisation of Space Communications Intersputnik are studying issues of using the potential of Russian satellites for exchanging data between the two countries’ education agencies and for implementing a project of the company Space Communications to expand Mozambique’s national satellite systems to provide the country with broadband internet access and television broadcasts.
Noting further that Russia’s support for Maputo’s constructive commitment to developing regional integration processes, as was its intention to assist the African community in the search for consensus solutions to the challenges facing the continent. Russia and Mozambique have consistently maintained that all problems, including conflicts and crisis be resolved paving the way for engaging in sustainable development to uplift the impoverished population.
The two countries have maintained trade and economic relations these several years. The volume of trade between Russia and Mozambique in 2018 amounted to US$115 million. In her speech Matviyenko, however, referred to the need to increase trade between Russia and Mozambique, which in the past year amounted to approximately US$109 million, well below its potential. Comparatively and as already known, Russia market regulations are still not favourable for African exports unlike it is for Europe and United States, and a number of Asian countries.
Despite its highly praised global status, Russia has still lagged far behind, in practical terms, economic engagement in Africa. It is still unknown when Russians will start promoting the practical implementation of mutually beneficial projects, including infrastructure, technology, industry and agriculture et cetera in Africa.
As always, Russians continue asking Africans to identify priority areas in which cooperation could be expanded, despite the fact that there are diplomatic missions in Moscow and Maputo, the intergovernmental commissions meet regularly, business people and government officials attend forums such as the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the newly created Association for Economic Cooperation with African States (AECAS) headed by former Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Saltanov, Chambers of Commerce and Industry in both countries, Foreign Ministers travel to and fro between Maputo and Moscow, and finally the guiding roadmap – the joint declaration – comprehensively laid out the parameters for cooperation during the first Russia-Africa summit held in October 2019.
According to reports from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russian-Mozambican interaction is based on strong ties of friendship and cooperation, which developed during the struggle of the Mozambican people for independence, and which continue to develop today. The diplomatic relations between the two countries was established on June 25, 1975, on the day Mozambique declared its independence. The Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of Mozambique was then signed in 1977. Mozambique is one of the 16-member Southern African Development Community.
Aakha Biologics calls itself “a world-changing drug discovery engine.” In the last year, it’s seen a lot of changes itself. First its founder relocated from Boston to Dallas to start it up in May 2021, moving into interim space managed by BioLabs at UT Southwestern. Then in March it became one of the inaugural tenants at BioLabs Pegasus Park, a 37,000-square-foot coworking laboratory and office space for life science and biotech startups.
Now, just three months later, Aakha has moved into permanent headquarters at 5680 Frisco Square in Frisco, while retaining a membership with BioLabs Pegasus Park to stay connected with its ecosystem and programming activities.
“Our time at BioLabs Pegasus Park proved to be an ideal situation for us. We had excellent opportunities to interact with colleagues and like-minded entrepreneurs,” Hemanta Baruah, PhD, founder and CEO of Aakha Biologics, said in a statement. “With the premier facility and synergies available within Pegasus Park, we moved from concept to a solid preclinical stage company in the course of one year.”
Aakha’s ‘drug hunters’ move from concept to IND-enabling studies
Aakha Biologics—whose name means “hope” in India’s Assamese language—has a goal of being in the fast lane when it comes to speeding cancer drugs to patients.
“We value efficiency in the drug discovery process, rapidly bringing high quality therapeutics to patients,” the startup says on its website. “We utilize multiple advanced antibody discovery platforms to empower experienced drug hunters to go efficiently from concept to IND [Investigational New Drug] enabling studies.”
Aakha says that its synergistic approach reduces the time required to optimize, develop, and produce “world-class therapeutic options,” with complementary discovery and business models “designed to support the scientists who create therapies that save lives.”
At its new lab in Frisco, Aakha has “almost everything we need for our day-to-day activity,” Baruah told Dallas Innovates, “including a $250,000 fluorescent cell screening scanner” that’s being installed in the next two weeks, and other high-end equipment.
“We are focused on building the next generation immuno-oncology bi-specific platform for multiple tumor indications,” Baruah said.
Aakha’s founder and CEO worked at UT Arlington cancer immunotherapy startup
Hemanta Baruah, founder and CEO of Aakha Biologics. [Photo: Aakha]
Baruah, the company’s founder and CEO, was formerly principal scientist at Arlington-based AbeXXa Biologics, a faculty startup from UT Arlington that was acquired by Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim in 2021. Baruah moved to the Boston area in 2018 to take the role of associate director of protein engineering at Dragonfly Therapeutics. From 2020 to 2021, Baruah was an entrepreneur in residence at Alloy Therapeutics’ affiliated venture studio, also in suburban Boston. He founded Aakha Biologics on his return to North Texas in May 2021.
“Aakha Biologic’s commitment to locate and grow in North Texas signals the region’s strong biotech commercialization potential,” said BioLabs Pegasus Park’s site director, Gabby Everett, PhD, in the statement. “Operations here in North Texas are supporting promising life science startups that will change the world and benefit mankind.”
Raising funds soon to fuel growth and hire more staff
Baruah said Aakha currently has four employees, and is currently raising funding with plans to hire “an additional four to six people in the next three months.”
Aakah’s team includes some key players from Baruah’s time at Alloy Therapeutics in Greater Boston. Alloy’s founder and CEO, Errik Anderson, is an Aakah board member. Chris Pacheco, PhD, a general partner at 82VS, Alloy’s affiliated venture studio, serves as a strategic advisor for Aakha.
Other Aakha team members include scientist Manoj Sabnani, another Alloy Therapeutics alum and former lab coordinator at UT Arlington; associate scientist Vikram Mavinkurve, who previously served as an immunotherapeutics, immune monitoring, and epidemiology researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center; and Taylor Gray, a scientist with a PhD from the University of Chicago who focuses on the tumor microenvironment for cancer immunotherapy.
Fourteen tenants now operate at BioLabs Pegasus Park
BioLabs at Pegasus Park. [Image: GFF Architects]
There are now 14 companies operating out of BioLabs Pegasus Park, occupying 40% of the space, BioLabs says. About half of the tenants relocated to Dallas from the West and East coasts, while the other half came out of North Texas.
“Demand for the co-working lab and office facilities has been high ever since the facility’s grand opening in March, as we meet with prospective companies every week,” Everett said in a statement. “The space that was originally occupied by Aakha Biologics is now filled and only one medium 10-bench private lab is still available. Our team is pleased with the interest among biotech and life science companies.”
The Pegasus Park location—near the bustling Dallas Medical District northeast of downtown—is Boston-based BioLabs’ first outpost in the Central U.S.
Everett, the site director, told Dallas Innovates the average tenure for a company at BioLabs is “around 12 to 18 months.”
“BioLabs helps to de-risk biotech by providing companies with space and access to equipment that they normally wouldn’t be able to have access to in an early stage,” Everett added. “We help launch companies into permanent North Texas locations by providing networking opportunities and connections to the ecosystem.”
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R E A D N E X T
BioLabs at Pegasus Park shared space and state-of-the-art lab is slated to open in December. It’s a place where entrepreneurial innovators can test, develop, and grow their ideas.
The Water Cooler at Pegasus Park—the largest shared nonprofit space in Texas — is a place designed to accelerate impact, together. From Big Thought to SVP Dallas to The Trust for Public Land, the 15 ‘exceptional nonprofits’ were picked after an application process last summer. They’ll join Water Cooler’s five founding tenants.
The redevelopment will include a new 16-story office tower, a 19-story apartment building, a 154-room boutique hotel, and a food hall—all with views of a new community park. Phase 1 has already begun: an initial $500M mixed-used project located across Warren Parkway from The Dallas Cowboys’ Star development.
“It’s not an idea—it’s happening,” says April Allen, president of the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation. Southern Gateway Park will be an engineering marvel over I-35E, with five acres of wooded slopes, water features, rocky escarpments, a restaurant/retail complex hidden under a hilltop, and one of the most awesome kids’ playgrounds in North Texas. But its greatest achievement may be to make Oak Cliff whole again—and to bring all of Dallas together.
